Mar 04
Last night, I asked a politician a question. And because I was on twitter, as was the politician, I asked it on twitter. The politician answered me, but was also annoyed that I’d jumped to conclusions by posting to twitter. I argued I was just asking a question, not making a statement, but 24 hours …
Mar 02
I was asked to speak last night at “Crisis in Journalism”, an NUJ event for students. My brief was to give a perspective on life as a freelance journalist. RTÉ’s Colm O’Mongain spoke about broadcasting, Noirin Hegarty spoke about print and online, and Barry McCall gave an overview of the industry in Ireland. Usually I’m …
Feb 20
I want facts. And that means that often, some of my most productive reading is on blogs. Bloggers (unpaid, writing in their spare time, dismissed as hobbyists by “proper” journalists) produce the goods often enough to keep me coming back. Whether its Tony Humphreys‘ views on autism, a questionable advertising claim, or alleged social welfare …
Feb 04
For a while, I’ve been toying with an column idea. Call it The Raised Eyebrow. Part Flat Earth News, part questioning conventional wisdom. Last week, an editor agreed to a column. Depending on how it worked out, more might follow. One idea came from a throwaway Prime Time line. “Sean Sherlock’s website was hacked”, apparently …
Jan 29
I’m an occasional contributor to Scibernia, the Science podcast also broadcast on Near fm. Too occasional, unfortunately. While I’ve done a few reports for the project, scheduling problems mean I rarely get a chance to sit in on the studio recordings. I do however manage the occasional piece, such as when I travelled to the …
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Jan 29
I write. As a freelance, I hold copyright on those words. “Ireland’s SOPA” wants to protect those words. But copyright already protects them. My words have been pirated a few times. The first time, articles were cut and pasted wholesale from a website and re-used. Not by a pirate website, but by an old-established company. …
Oct 23
Last night, thejournal.ie won the Best Online Only Publication at the Irish Web Awards. Congratulations. The award led to some reaction online, with journalist Philip Nolan observing: “So, let me get this straight. Traditional media spends millions on journalism but if you aggregate that content, you get an #iwa award.” This in turn prompted debate …
Jun 13
Imagine you arrive at a foreign airport, only to discover that your luggage has somehow gone missing. Perhaps it’s on a later flight, or it was sent to another airport. So you go to the lost baggage office, only to be told that because the owner of the luggage could not be identified, they gave …
May 17
Overnight transcripts from the Smithwick tribunal may not be made available to the public or to the various legal teams granted representation at the inquiry into alleged Garda collusion with the Provisional IRA. “The transcripts will not be put on the internet,” counsel for the tribunal said at today’s brief public hearing. They would also …
Apr 29
Tucked into the Fine Gael manifesto were a couple of promises which affect journalists: a plan to pioneer US-style “fair use” in EU law, and a review of intellectual property (IP) law. Fair use, Fine Gael says, will “allow internet companies and digital innovators to bring their services to market”. The IP update would give …